Havent HM Customs anything better to do?

[toad_oftoadhall]

The Capatain allowed the crew to be issued with duty free fags but then she anchored within the UK limit.

OK they committed an illegal act but these guys get paid peanuts and honestly thought they were bound abroad.

Is this a fair representation of what happened? I didn't see the show but I think I overheard someone discussing a similar show at work.

Wasn't it a rather large amount of cigarettes? Way more than the sailors could have smoked? Wasn't the suspicion that they were selling large numbers of cigarettes ashore?

Or maybe these guys were talking about another show?

 

[Doghousekeeper]

hi ive been reading with many thoughts about this guy ...most likely hates .. beening nice to any one...and lives by the book realy dull life hey??????

Errrr...... what????? Does this make any sense to anyone? A translation into something vaguely literate would be useful

 

[NorthUp]

If standard operating procedure is to obey and enforce the law then aren't they actually doing a good job?

No, a dose of common sense and a sense of proportion is required by all the civil servants who govern us by consent. This equates with the cop who writes a speeding ticket for being 1 mph over the limit- all it achieves is another unhappy punter who will not report the suspicious RIB crossing the channel at 0500, or the yacht deep in the water west of Ireland loitering 10 miles off the coast.


Toad- ''Wasn't it a rather large amount of cigarettes?''

as I recall from the prog., customs confiscated around 60k cigs, the ship had about 3k extra aboard undeclared but the biggest 'sin' was to have opened the bonded store when eight miles offshore instead of 12 miles- FFS they had been at anchor for three weeks!
I could see the point if they crew were sneaking ashore every night flogging fags in the pubs, but they were not.
The customs admitted before boarding that they knew the vessel had been waiting for orders for three weeks- how long do you think a smoker can last with what he bought legally ashore in expectation of the ship sailing into international waters?

And what was the nonsense demanding to know if any crew had military service in the past? Did the USSR not have National service years ago?To many Bond movies in the mess I think!

This is sloppy policing going after the easy targets, alienating potential sources of intelligence for the future, and - you read it here first- we the GB public will be next in line for the same treatment.

Rant over.

PS I have seen then in action up at the North of the UK, and the attitude is the same- we are 'civilians' to be kept in line.

 

[toad_oftoadhall]

as I recall from the prog., customs confiscated around 60k cigs

60,000? In that case I think we are, indeed, talking about the same show.